The Christmas market was beginning in Bern on November 27th, so at the last minute Rick and I decided to hop on a train
to visit the capital of Switzerland. It was about a 4 hour train ride to Bern. It was a nice sunny day when we arrived.
I especially wanted to see Bern since I had heard that it is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It received this designation for
the large, well preserved medieval town center. Some time after the town was built, the shopkeepers started displaying their
wares on the sidewalk outside their stores. They started to construct shelters for these outside stands, and eventually the
entire buildings were brought forward above the sidewalks to form an arcade. There are about 4 miles of covered "arcade" sidewalks
in this old center, so one can shop and be sheltered from the weather.
In two of the squares of the old town center of Bern their Christmas market was set up. Each vendor had a little "hut"
constructed, which could be locked up at night, since the market would continue daily until Christmas. The outer walls of
the market were covered in pine boughs, which made it smell very nice! In winter it is tradition to drink hot wine, "Gluwein"
in German. So of course we had to try that - plus it kept us warm since it was quite cold there!
When we arrived we didn't know if we would stay one or two nights, but after just a couple of hours in Bern we knew we
wanted to stay 2 nights. On Sunday morning we went to the French church in town. The bells started ringing 15 minutes before
the service began, so if any local residents were hung over from Saturday night and wanted to sleep late - forget it!
After church we set out to explore more of the town, thinking everything would be closed as it usually is on Sundays
in Switzerland. But with Christmas coming, in half of the old town all the shops were open for Christmas shopping. We
were told that the following Sunday the other half of the town would be open. But we were extra lucky, since not only were
the shops open, but they all had little "open houses" with tables set up in front of their shops with wine, cookies, and
candy for anyone to enjoy! We thoroughly enjoyed strolling from shop to shop. The antique shops are excellent!
We continued across the bridge to hike up to what is called the Rose Garden. It is supposed to have the best view of
Bern, and we weren't disappointed. Nearby were the bear pits. Apparently Bern means bear in German, so the bear is their
symbol, coming from old legends. There are a number of bears in low pits (with things to play on, etc) for visitors to watch.
As we continued our stroll around the town, we were blessed with an awesome view of the Alps in the distance. We
were surprised since it was a cloudy day, but in the distance the clouds were high enough to see all the Alps.
We found Bern to be more expensive than Lugano. Actually, we've been told that Lugano is the least expensive
larger city in Switzerland. Since we were not very excited about eating heavy, German style food (and paying a lot for it!),
we ate our meals at the Bern train station - which I would recommend to everyone! It's like a shopping mall inside with
many good choices of inexpensive places to eat.
Some people judge how expensive a city is by the price at McDonald's. Although we didn't eat there, the price for
a sandwich, small fry and small drink was 10.90 francs, about $9.41.
